


the flower in my hand, the book in my lap

by arbarkati



Category: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois
Genre: Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 05:38:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13140198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arbarkati/pseuds/arbarkati
Summary: From the Talriken probe audio archive, Dr. Annet Selby, D.Th. Recorded August 1, 3210.





	the flower in my hand, the book in my lap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yasaman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yasaman/gifts).



`August Recording of Dr. Annet Selby, August 1, 3210, for inclusion in the Talriken probe (never launched):`

Okay, I'm gonna tell you now. I remember back then, in the days where we discovered that nobody was dying. I was just turned 60, just retired, and had plunked down the money for a cruise on the Queen Mary 2. Been saving for that for years, wanted to go and see the route my ancestors took from Sout'ampton to Boston a bunch of centuries before. M'parents were too sick to sail then, but if you ask, they're much better now. I was really worried about Mum. We got into a lot of arguments - Mum was such a perfectionist and I couldn't take her comments about things, but I love her and I'm glad that she's less stressed now that she's had a few centuries to relax. I learned to relax too, because I was a lot like her, but I took it all inward.

Back the year or two before, the last babies had been born. Lots of trying to get pregnant, not that I cared because I didn't want kids ever and my body decided to agree with me. Menopause was hell, glad they fixed it. Never liked hot flashes.

Where was I? Yeah, lots of scientific researching to try to figure out what was going on. Finally figured out that sperm and egg just didn't get along anymore after April 7, 2026, just didn't happen. Cell aging just kind of stopped, too, and cells started renewing themselves. In other words, nobody was aging, nobody was dying. I mean, at least of natural causes, though emergency rooms noticed that they could save everybody easier now because everybody kept staying alive. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, staying alive... sorry! In the beginning, I remember that doctors were so amazed and they didn't understand why. Little bit hard to end lives even then your own or someone else's.

That's what everybody talked about on the boat. Not the Atlantic Ocean, not about anything else, but if we were really immortal, and the fact that the kids were still growing up and what were we gonna do when there weren't any kids anymore? A lot of us were seniors and just everyone talked so so much about were we just going to be old forever. We still are old, but it never feels like it now. The new young, ya know? Because nobody's really old anymore. I keep in touch with the Pym sisters who were watching that movie Lady Bird with me. Really nice ladies, always so thoughtful and we had a really good debate about what the whole thing could mean. Turns out that they predicted things right about what would happen.

Me? Called mum n' dad first thing. They were in wheelchairs, hadn't been in good health for years. Mum was sure she'd be dead before I retired, I remember. Had a scare back in 2012 when she got bad pneumonia. Now she's a few centuries old and does half-marathons with me. Very tame stuff, I know. I remember that first one, where I limped from mile 9 onward. Now it's nothing at all.

Mum was so sure that they were wrong. That everyone would eventually start aging again. A lotta people thought that back then, to be honest. This couldn't last. Ther'd be deaths and babies again. Never happened. Never. Still here, still kicking, right as rain! But even I miss having kids around. Not as much joy without them. Remember my cousin's daughter trying for a while around then and trying and trying, but it never happened. We got used to it, though. Helped that some of us never lost our childhood vigour. We kept each other around while we tried to figure things out. So long ago this happened. My memory's not the greatest but it's better than it was.

But anyway, people stopped dying of natural causes nine months or so after people stopped dying. I mean, emergency rooms are still needed! Just not as much. And people still go to doctors. I'm working on getting therapy for all my ugly moles. I wish they had disappeared.

Anyway, took a while. Human nature, had to debate all the religious stuff and what it meant when nobody would go to the afterlife of their belief. I should know, I got my Doctorate a century or three ago and my entire thesis was on that. Things were still ugly for a while before we got our collective acts together.

But yes! I remember that day on the Queen Mary 2, sitting there watching TV while my tablet was charging. We were immortal... maybe. Possibly. Still up for debate, but so sensational! Nobody would die. Mostly. Still was decades away from preventing all deaths. Nobody wanted to believe it. Nobody thought that we would really be still around after so many centuries, but here we are. Either that, or I've been having a very lovely dream that I never hope to wake up from.

Still, I miss childrens' books. Nobody writes them much anymore unless there's nostalgia for them. Of course, that happens every few decades. I've written one or two, but it just doesn't feel the same to write for adults. Not that I would have been ever good at writing for kids, I suppose. The original books are so rare now, and you will have to pry my Mr. Men books from my cold dead hands.

This is the world I wanted, this place that we've made. I was saddened that we would never go into space, but I guess it's for the best. Who knows, we might have aliens, if this project of yours works out! I hope you include my recording, I like talking to a new audience.

Hello, aliens! Come and see us! I'll bake you the best brownies you've ever seen if you come, I've been making them for centuries. Please. Always good to talk to someone new. I like talking, as you can tell.

Should I stop recording? Okay. Bye!


End file.
